4 ms·

becoming a craftsman and getting to the 99th percentile has major trade offs. In order to survive as a business you need to create value and capture the market

becoming a craftsman and getting to the 99th percentile has major trade offs. In order to survive as a business you need to create value and capture the market faster than your competition can. To do that you need to do more than your craft. You have to operate a business or you’ll get swallowed up by competition who doesn’t follow your mantra. I also believe the cheapification of so much of society and the shallowness of so many companies means that people will be craving high quality, authentically produced goods and services. In the long run quality may win out, but that’s if your competition doesn’t put you out of business before.

bhldev 7y ago
If you want authentic and high quality you need craft. If you're not building a lifestyle business you need craft to operate as a business. Who do you really think has a chance at success the guy who works 4 hours a week or the guy who puts time in their work? You need more but you need different kinds. There's no way to avoid the work, and you got to be good at the work to get anywhere. Marketing is a craft so is sales so is raising money so is writing. There's no way around it and "4 week work week" is probably more applicable to the time of dropshipping, blogging, affiliate marketing and other lifestyle business than anything concerned with "time to market". Ignore craft at your own peril (cannot go anywhere without a very experienced CTO).
- agota 7y ago
  I don't see why you think the "4 hours a week guy" doesn't have a chance at success. Presumably, his definition of success is building a business that can be run in 4 hours a week while making enough money to fund his desired lifestyle. So if he managed to do that, he's already successful. I don't get this contempt for lifestyle businesses.
  - bhldev 7y ago
    I think if "4 hours a week" means "spend 400 hours or 4000 hours then you can spend 4 hours a week" it's more honest. In short I think it's more honest to say, you might have to give up your lifestyle for awhile or have it be a small part of your life... For months or years. And have no guarantee of success. It's not irrelevant it is key because it means giving up the way you live. It is important to go into it eyes wide open so if you lose you know how to try again or recover. It's not a contempt I think it's a great idea I might even do it one day but the hidden catch of "lifestyle business" exists enough. And people deserve to know and compare with someone working their ass off, and compare chances of success.
Applejinx 7y ago
I'm going to bring up a concept that you might not have considered called 'break-even'. And perhaps one called 'never run out of cash' ;) You've got a fundamental error in your reasoning here. To a craftsman, the market is _irrelevant_. They cannot necessarily scale anyhow. To a craftsman (I know what I'm talking about as I run a Patreon-based open source business along just these lines) the only thing that matters is cash flow and whether you've got your own clientele doing enough business with you to keep the doors open. You're certainly still creating value, and operating a business just as much as publically held companies, but the market is irrelevant to you and you may even benefit from repudiating the market and claiming you're not confined by its expectations (I do this, quite successfully). It is still possible to be killed by competition doing this, but only through illegal acts (such as buying your building and kicking you out, or colluding with all your suppliers and making them refuse to sell to you, or killing you outright). If you aren't publically held and you have a clientele that you can service, you cannot get swallowed up by competition no matter what they do: in fact, it's possible to manipulate hostile actions by a larger competitor to your own benefit, by crying foul or claiming they are trying to eradicate a superior option. These things are, yes, more than 'your craft', but they're completely realistic. I've run Airwindows for over ten years in a really nasty industry along these lines, and as long as I stayed over break-even (or hung in there through lean times!) I ended up just fine :)
say_it_as_it_is 7y ago
"Market capture" doesn't exist in a competitive marketplace. Being the first to serve a market first guarantees no such future performance. Customer loyalty is another myth.

bhldev 7y ago

If you want authentic and high quality you need craft. If you're not building a lifestyle business you need craft to operate as a business. Who do you really think has a chance at success the guy who works 4 hours a week or the guy who puts time in their work? You need more but you need different kinds. There's no way to avoid the work, and you got to be good at the work to get anywhere. Marketing is a craft so is sales so is raising money so is writing. There's no way around it and "4 week work week" is probably more applicable to the time of dropshipping, blogging, affiliate marketing and other lifestyle business than anything concerned with "time to market". Ignore craft at your own peril (cannot go anywhere without a very experienced CTO).

agota 7y ago
I don't see why you think the "4 hours a week guy" doesn't have a chance at success. Presumably, his definition of success is building a business that can be run in 4 hours a week while making enough money to fund his desired lifestyle. So if he managed to do that, he's already successful. I don't get this contempt for lifestyle businesses.
- bhldev 7y ago
  I think if "4 hours a week" means "spend 400 hours or 4000 hours then you can spend 4 hours a week" it's more honest. In short I think it's more honest to say, you might have to give up your lifestyle for awhile or have it be a small part of your life... For months or years. And have no guarantee of success. It's not irrelevant it is key because it means giving up the way you live. It is important to go into it eyes wide open so if you lose you know how to try again or recover. It's not a contempt I think it's a great idea I might even do it one day but the hidden catch of "lifestyle business" exists enough. And people deserve to know and compare with someone working their ass off, and compare chances of success.

Applejinx 7y ago

I'm going to bring up a concept that you might not have considered called 'break-even'. And perhaps one called 'never run out of cash' ;) You've got a fundamental error in your reasoning here. To a craftsman, the market is _irrelevant_. They cannot necessarily scale anyhow. To a craftsman (I know what I'm talking about as I run a Patreon-based open source business along just these lines) the only thing that matters is cash flow and whether you've got your own clientele doing enough business with you to keep the doors open. You're certainly still creating value, and operating a business just as much as publically held companies, but the market is irrelevant to you and you may even benefit from repudiating the market and claiming you're not confined by its expectations (I do this, quite successfully). It is still possible to be killed by competition doing this, but only through illegal acts (such as buying your building and kicking you out, or colluding with all your suppliers and making them refuse to sell to you, or killing you outright). If you aren't publically held and you have a clientele that you can service, you cannot get swallowed up by competition no matter what they do: in fact, it's possible to manipulate hostile actions by a larger competitor to your own benefit, by crying foul or claiming they are trying to eradicate a superior option. These things are, yes, more than 'your craft', but they're completely realistic. I've run Airwindows for over ten years in a really nasty industry along these lines, and as long as I stayed over break-even (or hung in there through lean times!) I ended up just fine :)

say_it_as_it_is 7y ago

"Market capture" doesn't exist in a competitive marketplace. Being the first to serve a market first guarantees no such future performance. Customer loyalty is another myth.